Notre nouveau pied-à-terre

We've made the big move! It's been two days but I'm already a very happy camper. Here are some views from our new quartier, Bastille in the 11th.

Our view

Bastille Market

Joyeuses fêtes

Happy holidays everyone!

We decided to spend the holidays in Chailly after our trip was cancelled and we had a lovely Christmas dinner with friends in Barbizon. Some friends from home came into town and the next day we faux Boxing Day shopped at the outlets in Village La Vallée, near EuroDisney. The outlets were great, and there were deals to be had although the sales don’t start in France until January 12th. (I’ve got it marked on my calendar).

N has graduated from Insead and accepted a job, which he’ll begin in a couple months. Hooray! We’ve decided that we’re not quite ready to leave France yet. So this week we’re packing up our bags and moving to Paris! We’ve found a great apartment by the Bastille and really close to the Marais! I’ll continue to work a bit, we’ll take some language classes and we’ll enjoy la belle vie for a little longer.

Happy New Year!

Grounded

Here we go: it’s 6:30 am on Monday. We’re going to Vienna for Christmas. Our flight leaves at 9:50 am. After trying to drive to the airport we park our car in Melun and catch the train into Paris to get to the airport because the roads are terrible and we drive a Euro-sized car. Flight status: on time.

The train ride was seamless. Awesome! It’s 8:15 and we’re on the last leg of our train ride. Flight status: on time.

It hit the fan when we got to CDG. Almost everything’s cancelled. All the people who were delayed (snow) Saturday and Sunday are there. Plus all the people coming in for today’s flights.

There are no lines roped off. There are no chairs. There are two people working our airline’s desk. Two. Two people I feel very sorry for. “Can’t call the airline, you have to wait in line” we’re told by an employee. Try to call for hours anyway, to no avail. So wait in line we did. For almost 10 hours. 3 hours after our flight was supposed to leave, the airline's website still doesn't say it's been cancelled. We meet some nice American students going home for Christmas while studying here. N meets someone in his field. I meet a bunch of French people that I grumble with (the French love a good grumble). They also love yelling at people who cut in line, which is surprising, because generally, most of them aren’t very good at forming a proper line in the first place. We watch 3 screaming matches. One involved hair pulling.

N holds down the fort while I run back and forth for food. McDonalds runs out of Nuggets (not the Nuggets!), salads, and big macs.

In the end, we’re rebooked for Wednesday. Making our 5 day, 2 destination trip a bit useless. We’re given 7€ each in food vouchers. Nothing else.

We get home around 10:00pm. We’re bummed after speaking to our insurance, who are no longer covering the cancellation of the trip. We call Expedia.ca. We’ve booked our flights and hotels through them. They can’t refund our flights, since the airline had rebooked them, but we get a full refund on our hotels, even the one we had booked for that night. We have never gotten such excellent customer service while travelling. We call the Canadian office of our airline. We ask them to cancel our tickets and give us a refund. They do, in no time. Wished we had thought of that 12 hours earlier!

While it’s a shame that we missed our trip (I’m much more zen about it today than I was yesterday) it’s ok, we’re happy to be together and have someplace to be here. And here, as A pointed out, is still France. There were a lot of devastated people at the airport who won’t make it back to see family and don’t have places to stay. So in the end we’re pretty fortunate.

Munich

On our way home for Istanbul, we had a layover in Munich. We spent 5 hours that day in flight limbo. Long story short, most flights out of Germany were cancelled due to the weather and we got a free day in Munich on the airline's dime.

We were planning on spending Christmas there, so it saved us a trip. Munich was lovely (and surprisingly cold). The Christmas markets were fantastic. So were their giant pretzels.

C'est presque Noel à Paris

It's hard to imagine that it's midway through December already. N graduates in less than two weeks and that our time in Fontainebleau is coming to an end. Sad face. We've been busy packing up but it still feels like we just got here!

I've been working full time for the last month. Between work and the 15 hours of commuting per week (which I have come to loath, LOATH!), it's left me a little low on spare time. On the positive side, I'm not spending any of the money I'm making.

The commute is driving me insane. I suppose it’s having the same effect on my fellow passengers, who, to be fair, have to do it every day, all the time. There are a lot delays which lead to exasperated sighs, eye rolling and mutterings of putain. One day last week I saw two pairs of strangers arguing about their spot in the metro. One argument each way. We’re packed in there like sardines...it hasn’t been pretty.

What is consoling is how beautiful Paris and Fontainebleau are in the winter. There are lights and Christmas decorations everywhere and it’s just so charming. Even our teeny tiny town feels very festive. What France lacks however, are candy canes (and peppermint lattes, cough). I learnt this while trying to bake a batch of Christmas cookies. N was at the wheel while we were on the lookout for anyone selling them. 6 stops, no dice.

The photo at the top is from the Galeries Lafayette, so pretty! I only had a few minutes to pop in, but rest assured, on my next day off there will be some money spending!

Istanbul

N and I just got back from a weekend in Istanbul and an unexpected day in Munich...more to come.

We had an amazing time. It might have been the best trip we've been on. The food was delicious (of course I start with food!), the people were really friendly and the culture was so rich and interesting. Very different than anywhere we've ever travelled!


We did a lot in 2 and a half days, although you could spend a lot more time there.



The Blue Mosque


Dinner!


Beautiful lamps at the Grand Bazaar

The Galata Bridge (those are fishermen all along the side)



My favourite...the Cistern Basilica

Christmas Market on the Champs Elysees

I see French kids eating these as I walk to school. I decided I wanted one too!

Raclette

Last night we went over to some French friends' for dinner. They treated us to la raclette traditionelle. Raclette cheese (why is the meal feminin and the cheese masculin?!? It's the same word France!) is heated on this fancy contraption and melted onto charcuterie and baked potatoes. Le yum yum yum.

La Défense

I’ve been reminded several times in the last two weeks that’s I’ve never been to La Défense, once while reading about it in a book, while looking through my friend’s recent shots of a trip to Paris on Facebook and on the metro map in the RER on my way to work everyfew days (I get out one stop before it). Since N and I had some business in Paris after work today, we decided to check it out.

La Défense is an enormous business district which sits on the outskirts of Paris/the Hauts-de-Seines department. “So that’s where they’ve put all the high-rises” I thought to myself as we drove it. It is also the home to La Grande Arche (above) and a fantastic mall, where I did in fact buy a beret.

Paris is certainly getting into the holiday spirit, non?

Last week

It was a good week for being inside. It rained. Every day. This morning, I turned to N and asked him when the last time we saw the sun was. Neither of us were sure, but it’s been at least a week. That being said, at least it isn’t snowing.

I’ve been working a lot, which I really enjoy. It’s three metros to get to where I need to be in Paris (and one train, and although it might not sound that efficient, the hour and a half by transit is a lot faster than the three hours it took us to drive in one morning this week). When it isn’t raining, I enjoy skipping the last metro and walking. The views are amazing and it’s adorable seeing all the little French children (so well dressed!) walking or scooting (is that what one does with a scooter?) to school. This week, if/when the rain stops, I plan on making a detour to see if a certain coffee shop has decided to bring their holiday beverages to this country.

I went for my first French haircut last week. I spent days looking up reviews for hairdressers both in Fonty and Paris. I read many an expat horror story, so I did my homework and armed myself with a list of Jen-specific hair cutting vocabulary gleaned from the internet. My hairdresser was very likeable (or does he tell everyone that their hair is a magnificent gift to be able to cut??). Something, however, got lost in translation, because I’m pretty sure (and by pretty, I mean 100% sure) that I did not ask for “des bangs.” But, des bangs are what I got. And while I don’t particularly think they suit me, I can deal with it. It gives me an excuse to buy a beret!

Le Palais du Chocolat

Sorry for the delay in posting... I have good reason though, I'm employed! I got a job substitute teaching in Paris. Between working and the two hours of commuting each day, it's been a busy week!

Today we (and our neighbours) went to Le Palais de Chocolat at Vaux le Vicomte, the castle that was the inspiration for Versailles AND where Tony Parker and Eva Longoria got married. LPC was an event at the castle featuring chocolate tastings, demonstrations and sales. It was delicious. Here’s a little sampling for you...

¡Madrid!

This weekend, N played in an MBA soccer/football tournament. In Madrid. Fortunately, I got to come along to inflict my Spanish on the Spanish once again.

Madrid is lovely, lively and surprisingly clean. Not as warm as you might think it would be though. No one else was wearing flip flops. Cough. Friday, we saw the sights (the Palacio Real, the cathedral, the Plazas) and enjoyed some good food. We lunched at the Mercado de San Miguel, which is essentially a pincho and tapas market, and it was the highlight of the day.

Saturday and Sunday N was at the tournament, so I set off on my own to explore (and I won’t lie to you, shop). It poured rain (all weekend), but it was still enjoyable. After a 2 hour metro ride and walk, I made it to the field to watch Insead win their second game of the day. We celebrated with patatas bravas, deep fried eggplant (with a brown sugar sauce, yum!), mushrooms, sangria and cañas at Casa Toni, recommended by Rick Steves.

The next day we were back at the field. The boys won the whole thing!

The staycation is over!

We had a lazy few days after my return, partly due to all the transportation strikes and gas shortages. We saw Christophe Maé in Paris on the 20th. He was great! Apart from that, we ventured out a few times (to go to the gym and see a couple English movies at the cinema – The Social Network and Wall Street 2). Other than that, I spent 70% of my waking hours in my bathrobe, eating Leonidas and catching up on American tv. (It didn’t make for an inspiring blog post). These might be my last weeks of unemployment (more to come soon!) so one must take advantage.

We managed to fill the car up and decided to take a trip to The Loire to drink some wine and see some chateaux. It was an ambitious 2 days, but was a great getaway. The Loire is beautiful, especially this time of year. And there are a TON of chateaux (more than 300) out there. This is why. There is such a thing as too many chateaux in two days, so we only checked out a few.

The Chateau de Chenonceau (Henry II) was really cool, especially seeing how it was built over the river, that every room was filled with fresh flowers (and an appropriate nod to Halloween with a pumpkin/gourd display) AND that you got to check out the large kitchens in the basement of the castle.

After noticing we only had half a tank of gas left and that almost every gas station we passed was closed due to being out of fuel, we found a station and waited 45 min to fill – a maximum of €30/car, lest we run out while trying to get home. According to the newspaper I read this morning, only a dozen or so out of 126 stations in the Loire had gas yesterday.

We decided to spend the night in Le Chateau de Sept Tours, just outside of Tours.

This is Francois I’s “weekend” (and hunting) palace, Chambord.

Another highlight in the Loire was the excellent white wine from Amboise and Vouvray. I loved being able to walk into a winery and sample everything. Our suitcase came back quite a bit heavier.

Back in Cheeseland

I’m back at (my French) home after a great trip with A. We spent a great week in Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante) and an even better weekend in London.

We enjoyed biking around Barcelona by night, eating countless plates of calamari and patatas bravas, visiting the Modernist sights (park Guell, my favourite!), trying not to butcher the Spanish language while speaking with anyone who would listen, ambling around the Boqueria market, spending 6 hours in a pintxo bar in Alicante, drinking many a pitcher of sangria, spending a beautiful day at the beach and not getting robbed.

London, was in top form as usual. Delicious food (Jamie Oliver...you can do no wrong), amazing shopping, and entertaining shows (Tribes and Jersey Boys). I also enjoyed not getting hit by cabs whilst crossing the road (looking the wrong way) and Pret a Manger lunches.

France greeted me with strikes. The trains are on strike. Oil refineries are on strike (no gas!). Air traffic controllers are on strike. It seems as though we will not be able to get anywhere by train, car or plane. Should be an interesting week!

We're off!

Hello
No Nuit Blanche post...I had one drafted but A is here and we've been very busy - I haven't gotten around to it.
All is well here and we spent a good day in Paris...despite me being quite unnerved about all the threats and travel advisories for France. It's quite unsettling. The police were out en masse today. Regardless, we had an enjoyable day and a fantastic wine tasting class at O Chateau. It was really fun and I learned more in an hour than I have in two months living in France. They served baguette alongside the wine. The same bread the president gets...it was really good.
I'm off to Spain for a week! There probably won't be any posts until I get back.
Take care!
Jen

Le marché aux puces

Well, les marchés aux puces because I went to two. I headed into Paris on my own early yesterday morning to check out the flea market at Vanves. I downloaded Keys to the Fleas on my iphone and set out to find some deals. Why Vanves?


The market was really interesting and its small size made for an enjoyable and not overwhelming experience. What was there? Doll heads, obviously. These seem to be a flea market staple. Why? Who’s buying them? There were dozens of stalls selling vintage keys, prints, postcards, clothing, buttons, jewelry, plates, mirrors and more. I ended up buying a black necklace and a brooch.

Since the market ended earlier than anticipated (it started raining), I had 7 hours to kill before meeting N for dinner. I decided to head to Clignancourt, the granddaddy of all French flea markets, on the other side of Paris. Clignancourt has several submarkets (each having 80 or so stalls) so one could easily spend a whole day wandering from market to market. However, one should probably have a job, unlike yours truly (for the moment anyway) because this market was significantly pricier than Vanves. I spotted some beautiful jewlery (yay) but it turned out to be Chanel (which should be a yay, but is an jobless boo). I would have also happily walked away with a vintage LV trunk, but that might not be the wisest investment vehicle at this point in time...

I walked away empty handed but I do plan on returning to Vanves. Apparently I need a cake stand and mismatched cups and saucers. Really.

I refuelled with a frappuccino (Parisian Starbucks is making a killing off of me) and strolled around the St Germain and then up les Champs Elysées to meet N. My feet felt like they were going to fall off - I'm actually glad I didn't buy much (N probably is too!). But my day wasn’t over, by 6pm we had another 7 hours to go. Yesterday was Nuit Blanche in Paris. More to come ...

We Sell Your Stuff on Ebay

Remeber the "We Sell Your Stuff on Ebay" store from the The 40-Year-Old Virgin? This store actually exists in over here. They have 4 locations, in Paris alone! Shaking my head...

Another one of my favourite things...

I love this blog, especially looking at all of their amazing Parisian rental apartments that I like to pretend I'll live in some day. Oh, and they tell me where to shop. I've made a friend for life...

http://hipparis.com/

Normandy

N had a few days off so we decided to hop in the car on Wednesday night and drive to Normandy. We were quite surprised by the reaction a lot of people had to hearing this news (“It’s so far!”). A couple hours in the car are nothing to a Canadian.

We drove to Caen on Wednesday night. We hit the road around 7 then had to turn BACK because we forgot our passports. As it turns out we didn’t even need them. That being said, had we not brought them we would have been met with a shrug and a “ce n’est pas possible” (“it is not possible”) had we needed them to do something. That’s also pretty much the answer I’ve gotten every time I’ve tried to open a bank account here.

We arrived in Caen that night and the next day we went to the Caen Memorial Museum, which was quite interesting and really big (they sell 24 hours tickets so you can come back in the afternoon or the next day to finish seeing everything). We then drove to Juno beach and the Canadian museum there. We haven’t seen that many Canadians in one place anywhere outside of Canada!

That night, we drove to Ducey, a small town near the Mont St Michel. We went to visit the latter that night after sunset, it was really magnificent all lit up.

We returned the next day, don’t let the picture with the blue sky fool you, it poured rain. All in all, it was quite a nice trip, albeit a bit short.